ID thieves lower prices

There is so much competition between ID thieves that the cost of stolen data has plummeted.

According to a Symantec report on Internet security threats, credit card numbers were being flogged for 40 cents each and access to a bank account was going for $10 in the second half of 2007. There were more than 711,912 new threats last year in comparison to 2006, when 125,243 were catalogued.

Stolen data is flogged through instant-message groups or Web forums that exist for only a few days or even hours. In some cases, stolen credit card numbers were sold in batches of 500 for a total of $200, which was half the price that the same data would be sold for in the first half of 2007.

A full identitiy, with a functioning credit card number, Social Security number and a person's name, address and date of birth, will set you back $100 for 50, or $2 apiece.

EU IDs are worth 50 per cent more than U.S. identities because they can be used in multiple countries.